Titanium nitride (TiN) has good abrasion-resistance, good high temperature-oxidation-resistance, high high-temperature strength and high elastic modulus, and accordingly, it is widely used for the manufacture of cutting tools, bulletproof materials, and abrasion-resistant and heat-resistant coatings. The finer the crystallite size of titanium nitride is, the better the hardness and toughness of the sintered titanium nitride products.
Titanium nitride powder is generally synthesized by reacting titanium with gaseous nitrogen at high temperature of 1000° C. or higher for a prolonged time.
This method, however, is hampered by the problems that it requires expensive equipments for the high temperature reaction and that the high temperature reaction which promotes particle size growth is not suitable for the preparation of nano-sized titanium nitride powder.